Dundee United manager Peter Houston maintains his side may be going into tonight’s League Cup clash at Queen of the South as underdogs given the current form of both teams.
Since the derby win on August 19, United have gone four league fixtures without a win and have failed to score on their last three outings, while this evening’s hosts lead the Second Division and have already claimed the scalps of Hibernian and Rangers in cup competitions so far this season.
So while the Tangerines’ SPL status should still make them favourites with the bookies, Houston admits he wouldn’t be surprised if their odds had lengthened somewhat after recent displays.
The United boss had the players in at Tannadice on Monday to comb over video analysis of tonight’s opponents and hopes his squad will learn some valuable lessons.
”I wanted the players to see what we’re going to be playing against, and what we’re going to be playing against is a confident team that is beating everybody,” he said.
”But I think it’s a good thing from our perspective because they are doing exceptionally well while we were poor on Saturday and we need to improve quite a bit.
”We’re going to be in a cup tie where we might well be going in as underdogs, because people might think that’s where the shock is going to be. And that’s the motivation for our players.
”Let’s be honest about it, with Queen of the South knocking Hibs out and knocking Rangers out, some people will be expecting them to beat us and that’s something we’ll take on board. We have to stand up and see if our boys can stand up to the challenge.
”What I want us to do is go down and show people what Dundee United are capable of. First and foremost we’ve got to win the battle before we win the war.”
Houston was disappointed with the manner of his side’s 3-0 defeat at home to Hearts on Saturday but wasn’t afraid to shoulder the blame.In Wednesday’s Courier, our reporter Ian Roache chats to chairman Stephen Thompson to mark the 10th anniversary of the start of the Thompson era at Tannadice”If I’m being honest and if I looked at it in hindsight, I picked the wrong team,” he acknowledged. ”I should have brought more experience into the team. In the middle of the park they were strong and I maybe should have brought Richie Ryan back into the team to use his experience to pick up Ryan Stevenson.
”But I look at the goals we lost and they are preventable. We have to put it out of our system and I’m glad that there’s a game so soon to try and get it out of our system.”
United fans travelling to Palmerston this evening can expect a different line-up to the one comprehensively beaten on Saturday, with Jon Daly in line for a starting spot.
The striker has been nursing a knee injury in the last fortnight but suffered no reaction to his appearance as a substitute at the weekend.
Willo Flood picked up a knee knock in the Hearts game but should be fit.
”We’re not scoring enough goals and I think that coincides with Jon Daly coming out of the team,” Houston continued. ”We’ve had a couple of dips in form from one or two of the players so we just need to keep our confidence up and people need to stick by us.
”I’ve got every confidence in our players because they are a great bunch of boys and I’m really looking forward to the Queen of the South game because I know that I’ll get a decent reaction.”
On the club’s recent results, the United boss isn’t pushing the panic button yet although he has demanded better from his youthful squad.
”We’re young this season and we’ve got to hit the ground better than what we have,” he said. ”At the start of the season after we beat Hibs and had a good game against Dinamo Moscow, a lot of people except for me I think were talking about second place.
”Realistically, I knew if we got a couple of injuries it would be difficult. Traditionally we’re a team that does start slowly but we can still get another 15 points from this quarter and if we get 12 of them we’ll still be double the tally we had at the same time last season.”